Nine Sent to Pretrial Detention into Torture Video Case

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The Tbilisi City Court ordered on June 21 pretrial detention for nine men, most of them former law enforcement officers, who are facing charges in connection to torture videos that emerged earlier this week after the Interior Ministry said that tapes depicting torture and rape of two detainees in 2011 were found in a large arms cache unearthed in Samegrelo region.

All but one appeared before the court on June 21 at a hearing on prosecution’s motion requesting pretrial detention for the nine men; the court said that one of the detainees was absent after “he refused to take part in the hearing.”

Earlier on June 21 Interior Ministry spokesperson, Nino Giorgobiani, said that one of the detainees inflicted injuries to himself during an interrogation with the use of “stationery item”. She said that injuries were not life-threatening and the police opened an investigation under the article 115 of the criminal code, which deals with alleged cases of bringing a victim to a suicide attempt.

Court hearing on June 21 into the motion of applying measure of restraint against the nine men was initially open for the public and media, but continued behind the closed doors upon the prosecution’s request. The judge, who upheld the prosecution’s motion, cited sensitivity of the case and need of protection of privacy of individuals involved. But lawyers of some detainees were against, citing that this hearing was not about merits of the case and would have hardly touched upon privacy issues.